Timestorm (7 page)

“See?” I said.

Until this very moment, I’d never touched anyone unless it was necessary—a planned gesture to display emotion or kindness. That was how everyone was, except for that guy and girl I’d seen in the past. And except for my parents, who I’d seen on a rare occasion unconsciously seeking out contact with the other. This, tonight, it didn’t feel like a plan. It felt more like a desperate need, or a want. I couldn’t tell the difference and somewhere in the back of mind, I knew that there was probably a big difference between the two emotions—need and want.

And yet I didn’t care in the least.

I leaned into Jean and felt the heat of her surrounding me. And then my mouth was on hers …
kissing
 … the most effective way to spread communicable diseases. Logic was losing big-time.

All four of our hands suddenly sought out more skin to touch—bare necks, under our shirts. Eventually it became apparent how much easier it would be to just throw them on the floor.

“Open your mouth,” she whispered after the shirts hit the floor and I kissed her for the hundredth time. “I saw this once…”

*   *   *

Blake hit the button to stop the recording and his face was bright red again. He kept his eyes on the control panel, and mumbled, “Sorry, I didn’t realize how much detail was inserted into my memory file.”

I glanced at Holly, who looked wide-eyed, but not a trace of the blushing that had infested Blake was on her face. My Holly would have been at least a little bit pink out of sympathy for Blake. Agent Holly seemed to have every emotion under control.

“Okay, so you were drunk,” she summarized. “And people in your present don’t get drunk or kiss, apparently.”

“They do kiss and everything else,” Blake said, finally looking at us. “It’s not usually so impulsive, more careful and planned. You get checked for immunities and cleared by a physician first. That’s how I was raised, anyway, and it’s all I knew. It could be different for some people in my present. I’m not really sure. Obviously, it was the same for Jean, too.”

“If you know all about the Plague of 2600,” I asked, “then why didn’t any of you go back to 2600 and give the government the secret formula for the vaccine or whatever?”

Blake sighed. “The division of government that supervised us wouldn’t allow any jumps to the plague period. It was off-limits. I think they were convinced that it would change too much about the future, that the world would have been overpopulated and too fearless.”

“But they could go around altering people’s genetics?” Holly said. “I think we need to hear the rest of this one. Hit that button or I will.”

Blake eyed Holly’s gun tucked in the side of her jeans and then sighed before starting up both the audio and visual replay.

I did open my mouth, but more to reply than because I wanted to figure out what she was going to do. Her tongue carefully slipped into my mouth and I froze, not sure what came next. She closed her mouth again and started kissing things that weren’t my lips—cheeks, neck, collarbone. Then she grabbed my hand and placed it on her breast. I became so lost in feeling this whole new type of skin, I didn’t even notice the door open.

“Jean!” Nora said. “Blake! What are you…?”

We both jumped apart, reaching for our wrinkled shirts on the floor and banging our heads together in the process. Once my shirt was safely returned to its original spot, I glanced at Thomas, standing behind Nora. His expression was completely unreadable. But at least he didn’t look shocked or angry.

“That wasn’t exactly what I had in mind,” he said to Jean.

Jean’s cheeks were flushed to a beautiful rosy color that clashed with her hair. My eyes bounced between the two of them, trying to understand Thomas’s words.

He just shrugged and picked up the empty bottle on the counter, holding it for Nora to see. “Dr. Ludwig wouldn’t exactly be disappointed if two of his beloved time travelers were caught reproducing.”

“Reproducing?” Jean and I said together.

Then I moved to the opposite end of the couch.

Creating offspring wasn’t exactly on my evening to-do list. Although I knew how it worked. Why couldn’t I have seen that was where we were headed a few minutes ago? I just didn’t think about it. I was too absorbed in the moment.

“He’s sixteen,” Nora said to Thomas under her breath. “He can’t do
that
yet.”

“Apparently he can,” Thomas said, shrugging again.

Jean scrambled to her feet and headed toward the nearest exit. “I’m not feeling well.”

I sighed with relief the second she was out the door. Now I really wouldn’t be able to make eye contact with her ever again. Not without turning the color of a tomato.

“Did you tell her to do that?” Nora asked Thomas.

“Not
that.
No,” he confirmed. “I told her to entertain the kid, make him feel more at home here.”

My stomach sank and flipped all at the same time. And then I felt the wine bubbling up inside me, working its way toward my throat.

I barely made it to the kitchen sink before regurgitating the dark purple liquid. “Impurities, right?” I gasped as my head hung over the drain. “In the water … the water used to make wine.”

Nora raced over, standing behind me, and placed a hand on the back of my neck like my mother did when I was sick as a child. She pressed a button above my head, turning the stream of water on, allowing me to rinse my mouth.

“Impurities for sure but also alcohol,” Thomas said. “It’s toxin that was banned decades ago for its negative effects on health and unpredictable behavorial side effects, not to mention its addictive nature.”

Thomas and Nora helped me walk to my bed after deciding my balance was less than a hundred percent. Nora placed a cool rag on my forehead and then left to check on Jean. Thomas stayed in my room, sitting in a chair next to the bed.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t realize Jean was experimenting tonight. I’ve seen how you admire her,” he said quietly, so as not to disturb my upset stomach and pounding head. “I just thought it might help cheer you up a little, spending time alone with Jean. She agreed without question.”

I couldn’t be upset with Thomas for trying to help me, but finding out he had instigated this whole evening made everything seem like just another mission or experiment. Nothing personal. It wasn’t like Jean would have said no to Thomas. Everyone respected him. Everyone knew he’d never ask for something that he didn’t think was important.

His intentions might have been out of kindness to me, but Jean’s were out of kindness and admiration for Thomas, not for me. Only the wine made her look at me differently and enjoy the time alone together.

“I wasn’t completely honest with you, Blake,” he said. “When I told you that Grayson had been injured.”

“He’s not injured?” I tried to sit up and decided it wasn’t worth the effort.

“He spent a lot of time in and around the year 1991 for the Tempus Gene Project and then eventually for his own personal time. The same freedom you’ve just been given to explore the past.” Thomas repositioned his chair so he was facing me and looked me right in the eyes. “He fell in love with a man in 1986. An agent working for the Central Intelligence Agency.”

Shock must have filled my expression though I tried my best to conceal it. “He could come back? Anytime? He chooses to live there?”

“I haven’t relayed this information accurately to Dr. Ludwig or anyone else. Grayson was my mentor. He helped me through my early missions and I had hoped if I allowed him some time, he’d realize his weakness and overcome it. A physical injury would keep his record clean,” Thomas said. “But a mistake, a judgment error, would mean his ability could be taken from him.”

“Taken?” I asked, finally able to sit up and lean against the headboard. “How do they take it?”

“I don’t know all the details,” Thomas said. “But trust me, there are ways. I don’t want you to fall into the same trap, feeling too much emotion for your family. That kind of behavior can really make this job difficult. I thought maybe having fun with Jean would help you overcome this. Perhaps I was wrong, and I’m truly sorry if her intentions hurt you at all.”

“It was just the wine,” I said. “I don’t know if it would have been a pleasant experience, spending time alone with her, if it weren’t for the … alcohol. Of course I look at her, think about her that way, but she’s the only female even remotely close to my age that I’ve seen since leaving home.”

“I understand,” Thomas said, standing up. “I won’t interfere in that way again. You have my word. And you also have my word that I’ll do everything in my power to keep my head clear and not abandon my position as your mentor for as long as you need me.”

“Did you mean it?” I asked him before he could leave the room. “When you said Dr. Ludwig wouldn’t be upset about two time travelers reproducing?”

He turned his back to me, flipping off the light before saying, “It’s a concept the government is currently exploring.”

“What about the Tempus Gene Project?”

“It’s certainly changing history, showing itself much earlier, but has yet to create the larger number of time travelers intended. President Healy wants to abandon the experiment in the next twelve months if it continues to be unproductive.” He shut the door halfway, leaving me in the dark. “Get some sleep. You’ll feel better tomorrow.”

And because Thomas told me to, I pushed my worries aside for now and fell right to sleep.

*   *   *

“Huh,” I said. “Are you sure this is the same Thomas that I knew?”

“Yes,” Blake said firmly. “And Grayson didn’t only stay in the past because of his partner. He also began to disagree with Thomas and Dr. Ludwig.”

“Sorry about the girl’s setting you up like that. Totally sucks,” I said to try and make the air in the small space slightly more comfortable for him.

“Yeah, totally,” Holly chimed in. She lifted her feet onto the long desk and leaned back in her chair. “I’ve been there, too. One time I was at this party and this guy I didn’t even know hit on me at the bar and then when I asked him to dance, he was really into it. Turns out he was just another agent trying to get information out of me about my best friend—”

“Wait,” Blake interrupted looking confused. “What—?”

“He’s dead,” she said, jumping back in. “Not the guy at the bar. My best friend. And the guy I danced with … apparently he’s hung out with various versions of me and doesn’t feel like it’s important to give me any details about those encounters.”

I stayed leaning against the wall, staring at Holly while attempting to look like I wasn’t completely in love with her. “That’s a great story, Hol, but—”

“So this guy was a time traveler?” Blake asked. “Who did he work for? Tempest?”

“Supposedly Tempest,” Holly said. “Good guys, bad guys, I’m not sure and it really doesn’t matter. Just another asshole trying to hook up with me for a mission.”

“
He
was trying to hook up with
you
?” I rolled my eyes and let out an angry breath. “If I remember right, you were the one that asked to come home with me. And I said no!”

Blake’s eyes bounced nervously between the two of us. “Um, okay, I’m lost.”

Holly dropped her feet to the floor with a loud thud and leaned forward in her chair, angling it away from me and facing Blake. “Let’s try this a different way. Let’s say another time traveler, one you don’t know very well, maybe not at all, seems to know a hell of a lot about you. And then you find out he
or she
has been jumping into the past and hanging out with you or doing God knows what with you. Then he
or she
erases everything and won’t tell you a fucking thing about what happened, would that piss you off?”

“You know what,
Agent Flynn
?” I snapped. “I never took you as the passive-aggressive type.”

She spun her chair around to face me. “Oh, I think I’m being very direct.”

Panic crept up inside me, mixing with anger. Why couldn’t she see that I was trying to make things better for her? “What? Am I supposed to relay every single second to you? Seriously? I already told you everything days ago, or don’t you remember?”

She stood up and walked closer to me, arms folded across her chest. “I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately and too many things don’t add up. If you only knew me through Adam, why did seeing me with Brian at the bookstore piss you off so much? Don’t deny it either, I could tell you were furious. And why did you almost kiss me during that fifty-thousand-dollar dance?”

I held my breath, feeling my heart thud too loud. I swallowed back the words I wanted to say and kept my mouth shut. She was too perceptive to miss the waver that would inevitably be present in my voice.

“You were about to kiss me, I know you were. It was like you forgot that you weren’t with a version of me who wouldn’t think that was weird. Like another version of me would expect to be kissed by you.”

My eyes were locked on hers, nowhere to run. All I could do was say, “Just let it go, Hol, please. It doesn’t matter.”

With that lame reply, I turned around and left the room. I couldn’t keep looking at her and not give everything away. What would she do if I told her?

Don’t. You’ve made the right choice.

CHAPTER SIX

DAY 11. LATE MORNING

I found Courtney and Emily in one of the cabins. They both sat on the bottom bunk of one of three sets of bunk beds, sifting through a giant pile of clothes.

“What’s wrong?” Courtney said as soon as she looked up at me.

Twin perception. It got me every time.

“Nothing,” I muttered.

Courtney looked at Emily and shook her head. “Jackson is a big fat liar. And a hamster murderer, too, apparently.”

Emily giggled and tossed items from the top of the pile to the floor by my shoes.

I laughed, too. “Okay, seriously, you need to forgive me for that. We were eight.”

“Fine,” she said. “Help us find pants for Mason. Something close to a thirty-inch waist and thirty-two-inch length.”

My guard flew up instantly as I stared Courtney down. “Let Mason find his own damn pants.”